BEDMINSTER, N.J. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday threatened military intervention in Venezuela, a surprise escalation in Washington's response to Venezuela's political crisis.

Venezuela has appeared to slide toward a more volatile stage of unrest in recent days, with anti-government forces looting weapons from a military base after the installation of an all-powerful new legislative body.

"The people are suffering and they are dying. We have many options for Venezuela including a possible military option if necessary," Trump told reporters.

More than 120 people have been killed in Venezuela and thousands arrested in over four months of unrest. The government in Caracas did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's threat.

Venezuelan authorities have long said U.S. officials were planning an invasion. A former military general told Reuters earlier this year that some anti-aircraft missiles had been placed along the country's coast for precisely that eventuality.

In Washington, the Pentagon said it had not received any orders on Venezuela from the White House. Trump, asked if U.S. forces would lead any operation in Venezuela, declined to provide details.

"We don't talk about it but a military operation - a military option - is certainly something that we could pursue," Trump said.

The United States sanctioned Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and other Venezuelan officials on July 31 after Maduro established a constituent assembly run by his Socialist Party loyalists and cracked down on opposition figures.

Washington has not placed sanctions on the OPEC member's oil industry, which supplies America with about 740,000 barrels per day of oil.

Venezuela possesses a stockpile of 5,000 Russian-made MANPADS surface-to-air weapons, according to military documents reviewed by Reuters. It is the largest known cache of the weapons in Latin America and a source of concern for U.S. officials amid the country's mounting turmoil.

The United Nations Security Council was briefed behind closed doors on Venezuela in May at the request of the United States. At the time, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said Washington was just trying to raise awareness of the situation and was not seeking any action by the 15-member Security Council.

_________________I could be the catalyst that sparks the revolutionI could be an inmate in a long-term institutionI could dream to wide extremes, I could do or dieI could yawn and be withdrawn and watch the world go byWhat a waste...

BEDMINSTER, N.J. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday threatened military intervention in Venezuela, a surprise escalation in Washington's response to Venezuela's political crisis.

Venezuela has appeared to slide toward a more volatile stage of unrest in recent days, with anti-government forces looting weapons from a military base after the installation of an all-powerful new legislative body.

"The people are suffering and they are dying. We have many options for Venezuela including a possible military option if necessary," Trump told reporters.

More than 120 people have been killed in Venezuela and thousands arrested in over four months of unrest. The government in Caracas did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's threat.

Venezuelan authorities have long said U.S. officials were planning an invasion. A former military general told Reuters earlier this year that some anti-aircraft missiles had been placed along the country's coast for precisely that eventuality.

In Washington, the Pentagon said it had not received any orders on Venezuela from the White House. Trump, asked if U.S. forces would lead any operation in Venezuela, declined to provide details.

"We don't talk about it but a military operation - a military option - is certainly something that we could pursue," Trump said.

Of course, they included a quote with Trumpolini actually saying "we don't talk about a military operation" in the fucking article. Which means it's not really been a consideration at all. Yet the media will probably start spinning this as "Trump is plotting an invasion of Venezuela" soon.

Luckily Reuters isn't as bad as much of the Demstream Media, here in the US, but it's still certainly biased. This is probably the least sensational article on the subject.

A military option is always supposed to be "an option" because you don't know what future events will happen. I'm hoping that's what the prez was implying, and that's my guess since his quote states that it's not even been discussed in this case. It's purpose obviously wasn't meant for Venezuelan ears.

This is more saber rattling meant to make others think he's trigger happy (*ahem* North Korea) than any actual plan to bother with Venezuela, which will have to deal with it's own past super-socialist choices on it's own.

Of course, they included a quote with Trumpolini actually saying "we don't talk about a military operation" in the fucking article. Which means it's not really been a consideration at all. Yet the media will probably start spinning this as "Trump is plotting an invasion of Venezuela" soon.

Luckily Reuters isn't as bad as much of the Demstream Media, here in the US, but it's still certainly biased. This is probably the least sensational article on the subject.

A military option is always supposed to be "an option" because you don't know what future events will happen. I'm hoping that's what the prez was implying, and that's my guess since his quote states that it's not even been discussed in this case. It's purpose obviously wasn't meant for Venezuelan ears.

This is more saber rattling meant to make others think he's trigger happy (*ahem* North Korea) than any actual plan to bother with Venezuela, which will have to deal with it's own past super-socialist choices on it's own.

Pretty much agree. But rather than a clever ruse, it might just be another example of Trumps oral diarrhea He doesn't seem able to keep his trap shut.

_________________Nero: So what is your challenge?

Anthro: Answer question #2: How do "Climate Change models" mathematically control for the natural forces which caused the Ice Age(s) to come and go . . . repeatedly?

CARACAS, Venezuela—Wuilly Arteaga became a symbol of Venezuela’s protest movement as he played patriotic hymns from his violin in the face of tear gas and rubber bullets. Then he was arrested and beaten.

When the 23-year-old was released after three weeks, he was stunned to find the protest movement had died and President Nicolás Maduro in greater control than ever.

“It looks like hope is gone,” said Mr. Arteaga this week, bruises visible on his left cheek. “I feel like everything is so dark, I don’t see an exit.”

Five months of violent antigovernment demonstrations have dissipated and the epicenter in Caracas, Plaza Altamira, sits eerily quiet. The barricades that opponents once set up to slow government armored vehicles are gone. Rumors of a military uprising are gone. And life has returned to normal, with people struggling to find enough to eat in a country stricken by shortages.

Despite an 80% disapproval rating, Mr. Maduro seemingly faces few short-term challenges to his rule just a month after he drew international condemnation by installing his allies into a new rubber-stamp assembly.

The government’s crackdown on protesters—including widespread arrests and torture, human-rights groups and victims say—has broken the once-potent protest movement. The protests claimed more than 125 lives and nearly 2,000 wounded, including scores with permanent injuries.

Clockwise from top, opposition activist Wuilly Arteaga played the violin during a antigovernment protest in Caracas, was in a hospital in July after being injured during a protest and sat in August after spending three weeks in detention. PHOTO: FEDERICO PARRA/AFP-GETTY; ROBERT CARMONA-BORJAS/AFP-GETTY; RYAN DUBE/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Some of the government’s leading political adversaries have fled the country and left the opposition coalition in disarray. The new so-called constituent assembly, stacked with Mr. Maduro’s supporters, has in recent weeks declared the opposition-run congress void of power, replaced a dissident attorney general with one supportive of Mr. Maduro, and is now investigating opposition leaders for alleged treason.

Emboldened, Mr. Maduro’s lieutenants now publicly debate how to censor social media while kicking off the air two Colombian TV broadcasters that were critical of his government, in what the channels called censorship.

“In the short term I think it’s paid off because they have effectively gained control over the whole government,” said David Smilde, a Venezuela expert at Tulane University. Longer term, he added, it remained to be seen whether the moves to maintain control will suffice.

Amid a deepening economic crisis, protests could always begin again at any moment. The crisis is expected to deteriorate, with the administration struggling to pay both its debt obligations and food imports amid dwindling reserves and soaring inflation.“The economic crisis is the unpredictable element going forward,” said Harold Trinkunas, an expert on Venezuela at Stanford University. “How that evolves I think will be the critical variable.”

Still, many analysts say it is difficult to see what could get a large number of Venezuelans to mobilize on the street again. Presidential elections aren’t scheduled until October 2018.

Mr. Maduro argues that the constituent assembly was needed to unify the country against an opposition it accuses of trying to destabilize the country alongside Washington. His supporters say they are happy some in the opposition are fleeing the country. “This Venezuelan opposition is being left isolated with only its boss in Washington at its side,” said Delcy Rodríguez, the president of the constituent assembly.

Continued at above link

_________________The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.- misattributed to Alexis De Tocqueville

No representations made as to the accuracy of info in posted news articles or links

By ANA VANESSA HERRERO and NICHOLAS CASEYSEPT. 2, 2017Continue reading the main storyShare This Page

CARACAS, Venezuela — Food shortages were already common in Venezuela, so Tabata Soler knew painfully well how to navigate the country’s black market stalls to get basics like eggs and sugar.

But then came a shortage she couldn’t fix: Suddenly, there was no propane gas for sale to do the cooking.

And so for several nights this summer, Ms. Soler prepared dinner above a makeshift fire of broken wooden crates set ablaze with kerosene to feed her extended family of 12.

“There was no other option,” said Ms. Soler, a 37-year-old nurse, while scouting again for gas for her stove. “We went back to the past where we cooked soup with firewood.”

Five months of political turmoil in Venezuela have brought waves of protesters into the streets, left more than 120 people dead and a set off a wide crackdown against dissent by the government, which many nations now consider a dictatorship.

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An all-powerful assembly of loyalists of President Nicolás Maduro rules the country with few limits on its authority, vowing to pursue political opponents as traitors while it rewrites the Constitution in the government’s favor.

But as the government tries to stifle the opposition and regain a firm grip on the nation, the country’s economic collapse, nearing its fourth year, continues to gain steam, leaving the president, his loyalists and the country in an increasingly precarious position.

Petróleos de Venezuela, the state oil company that is the government’s main source of income, reported in August that its revenue fell by more than a third last year amid production declines — part of a long collapse that chokes the country’s supply of dollars needed for imports of food and other goods.

The falling production mirrors trends in nearly every product that the nation depends on, from potatoes and corn to automotive manufacturing, with fewer than 1,100 cars made in the country through July this year.

Continued at above link.

The article goes on and on about what is to blame for Venezuela's difficulties...and, as an article at American Thinker pointed out, not once was the word "socialism" mentioned as a possible cause for the difficulties.

_________________The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.- misattributed to Alexis De Tocqueville

No representations made as to the accuracy of info in posted news articles or links

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